“The MTS is registered in Russia, and the operator does not use offshore companies to optimize taxes, all taxes are paid in Russia,” he said adding a year ago the company signed a horizontal monitoring agreement with the Federal Tax Service. Under the deal, the service will control the correctness of tax payments in real time.

Meanwhile, Solodovnikov added, as the company was developing and expanding, it acquired companies registered abroad. The MTS is currently implementing a program to streamline the organizational structure and consistently eliminating foreign-registered companies. “However, these companies have never been involved in tax optimization operations either,” Solodovnikov said.